A Front-Running Insurgent

More relevant than whether the Howard Dean phenomenon is ideologically driven by his opposition to the Iraq war and support for civil unions are these bits of history:

In the summer of 1971, insurgent Democratic hopeful George McGovern ran a distant sixth in Democratic presidential preference polls; four years later, Jimmy Carter was doing even worse, tied with such luminaries as Milton Shapp among the also-rans; in 1983, Gary Hart trailed not only the front-runners but even Alan Cranston, and four summers ago, John McCain...